Unauthorized Painting On A Public Space

The above title is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of graffiti.  In a literal sense, the hundreds of yards of graffiti that form a ribbon of color on three giant concrete water towers near my house are simply that, “unauthorized paintings”,  but I find them oddly beautiful.

The Morningside water towers, owned and maintained by the Syracuse Water Authority, are closed to vehicular traffic.  There’s a road that goes up there, but it’s chained shut at the base beside Ed Smith School.  Legend has it that ever since a man was shot and killed up there in the 1960s, police decided to shut down that secluded lover’s lane.

After the 911 Attacks, the department of Homeland Security restricted access even further.  I learned this from the utility line crews that sat five huge trucks in my driveway for several days last year to replace the cables and some of the telephone poles that ring the edge of the water authority property.  They needed to access the project through my driveway because even they could no longer get the key from the city anymore.

Neighbors make great use of the wooded paths throughout  this large patch of undeveloped  land in our city.  The view from the towers is spectacular, affording broad vistas of the south side and valley.  You can see the southernmost fringe of Oakwood cemetary, the roofs of Hughes Magnet School and Ed Smith school and Manley Field House, you can see the entire maze of south campus housing for Syracuse University, Brighton Towers apartments and the valley beyond. And always, by your side as you walk the narrow paved road around the three water towers, is the graffiti.

Graffiti artists find this remote and quiet location appealing for the same reason the lovers did.  You can be up there for hours and never see another soul.  The hideous scribblings elsewhere in the neighborhood; on the train track bridge over Colvin Street, the concrete abutments along Meadowbrook drive and the side of Nottingham High School are done in haste.  Witnesses are everywhere and they have no problem calling the police.

But give someone a canvas and some time and graffiti can be very pretty, at least to me.

I first saw the artwork at the top of my homepage a few months ago.  On a walk with my german shepherd, this orange-on-blue graphic was a colorful surprise on a day that was gray everywhere else; gray skies, gray snow, gray trees, gray people.  At first I thought it read “Syracuse”.  Doesn’t it look a little like it?  It must be the hometown colors, or the length that suggest the name.  For all I know it’s coded instruction to destroy a famous landmark or something, but I am choosing to ignore anything negative.   I’m happier when I focus on the rhythm and movement of it.

I’m not condoning graffiti.  It’s illegal and costly and my tax dollars get used up faster for its presence.  Even my artistic son Christian admits he would love to try his hand at some, however he is aware of the hefty fine and would rather save his money for electronics.  But up here, at the water towers, I suppose I prefer graffiti to the the bleak and the gray that is clean concrete.

Here are some other photographs I took up there.  Tell me what you think.  Am I crazy to find them a little delightful?  Did I chose the right one for my blog home page?  Or should I go the safe route and just do flowers?

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Tagged as: Crime, graffiti, urban art